424 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



in the language of the Incas, Aya-huasca, i.e. Dead 

 man's vine. The people were nearly all away at 

 the gold-washings, but from the Governor of Puca- 

 yacu I got an account of its properties coinciding 

 wonderfully with what I had previously learnt in 

 Brazil. Dr. Manuel Villavicencio, a native of Quito, 

 who had been some years governor of the Christian 

 settlements on the Napo, published the following 

 year, in his Geografia de la Repnblica del Ecuador 

 (New York, 1858), an interesting account of the 

 customs of the natives of that river, and amongst 

 others of their drinking the aya-huasca ; but of the 

 plant itself he could tell no more than that it was a 

 liana or vine. The following is a summary of what 

 I learnt at Puca-yacu and from Villavicencio of the 

 uses and effects of the aya-huasca or caapi, as 

 observed on the Napo and Bombonasa. 



Aya-huasca is used by the Zaparos, Anguteros, 

 Mazanes, and other tribes precisely as I saw caapi 

 used on the Uaupes, viz. as a narcotic stimulant at 

 their feasts. It is also drunk by the medicine-man, 

 when called on to adjudicate in a dispute or quarrel 

 -to give the proper answer to an embassy to dis- 

 cover the plans of an enemy to tell if strangers 

 are coming to ascertain if wives are unfaithful- 

 in the case of a sick man to tell who has bewitched 

 him, etc. 



All who have partaken of it feel first vertigo ; 

 then as if they rose up into the air and were float- 

 ing about. The Indians say they see beautiful 

 lakes, woods laden with fruit, birds of brilliant 

 plumage, etc. Soon the scene changes ; they see 

 savage beasts preparing to seize them, they can no 

 longer hold themselves up, but fall to the ground. 



